Wireless handsets are commonly misplaced, lost or stolen. For example, a misplaced mobile phone may be left in a variety of different places such as a car, a household couch, a desk drawer at home, a desk drawer in the office, or a briefcase. The mobile handset may also be stolen, and it is difficult to distinguish between a misplaced phone and a stolen phone. Thus, if the wireless handset is misplaced, the user has to make a difficult decision between waiting to find the phone or contacting the service provider and cancelling services associated with the wireless handset.
When an owner's handset is lost, the owner assumes the worst and fears that costly calls are being made on the wireless handset. Generally, the owner proceeds to quickly cancel the service, which makes the recovery of the headset significantly more challenging or impossible.
To avoid replacement costs it would be desirable for the handset's owner to be able to communicate with the person that recovered the phone. The phone's owner wants to find the handset to avoid replacement costs and because the handset holds contact information, photographs, music, and other personal information. If the phone is insured, the carrier also has an interest in recovering the handset to minimize replacement costs.
If a handset is inadvertently left in a taxi cab, a hotel room, or an airplane, the individual that that finds the handset may be unable to locate the owner of the phone. If the individual is a Good Samaritan, the individual may check the contacts list or the dialed and received calls list, and inform someone on the handset call history that the phone has been located.
However, if the phone is locked, or the person that locates the handset has more dishonest intentions, then the phone's owner or the carrier would like to communicate directly with the individual that located the wireless handset.
Accordingly there remains a strong need in the art to control any charges that are made with the misplaced, lost or stolen handset, and further to simplify the process of locating the handset.